"Tristan Mausse is a French surfer/shaper who spent years traveling
the world taking work as a laminator for various factories and continues
to do so today. The result of his experience is visually chronicled in
his latest book, Glass Shops. We asked Tristen a few questions to learn more..."

The late 50's/early 60's Hawaiian guns were remarkably advanced. With deep belly under the nose and dropped rails in the back, they featured transitional volume thickness flow (ie. more volume under the rail line in the nose, transitioning to more volume above the rail line in the tail.) This foreshadowed the shortboard hulls that followed in the late 60's.

Aside from the chunky fins and too-flat nose rockers, these boards were nearly ideal for their intended purpose...which was to survive big, thick Island waves. It was a harsh environment that forced shapers to find out what worked sooner, rather than later!

Here are three shots of Nat Young, ranging from 1968 to 1970. We can clearly see the transition from a super parallel deep V at the top, to a more moderated stubby outline in the middle, to a super short, pulled-in nose shape at the bottom.

All 3 boards featured the deep hull that was common in the early days of the short board revolution. All three were easily buried to the nose in a bottom turn.

The top board was serviceable, but no doubt sticky and hard to control due to the straight outline. The bottom board, with it's pulled-in nose combined with the deep hull, is "all drag and no go." Without any nose area to drive off of, the board sinks too far into a turn, and relies entirely on the fin to delivery any torque.

The middle board, however, seemed to have a right mix of outline and hull depth.

It's clear that the original shortboard hull designers overshot the mark. The next-gen builders (Liddle, Frye, etc) reigned us back in.

Here are two examples of boards...arguably, one with too much hull, and the other with not enough.

The green Keyo Nat Young is riding appears to be over 7 feet long, with a pulled in tail and too much V. (Deep V and a pulled in tail are redundant.) Even with a big fin to stabilize it, he tends to overturn. There isn't enough "load" on the rail when he banks it over, so there's little power delivery. And the board trims high up the face. There's too much hull!

The board Michael Petersen is riding in Morning Of The Earth is short (under 6 foot) and very flat. Probably too flat for a board with an outline that parallel. While it trims out with speed, it sits low on the wave face, and the edges are a touch too sensitive.

Obviously, both boards work. But it demonstrates how far hull shapers like Greg Liddle and Skip Frye refined hull depth in the 70's.